John Griffiths
John Griffiths is a Melbourne-born vihuelist, lutenist and musicologist whose research and performance have made him a leading authority on the sixteenth-century Spanish vihuela and its music.
On The Echo of Opheus (MD 3089) he presents fantasias, variations and dances from the seven printed vihuela books of Renaissance Spain, treating the twelve-string instrument as the spiritual heir of Orpheus’s lyre.
A founding member of La Romanesca, he has recorded mediaeval monody, Iberian and Sephardic song, and Golden Age villancicos and romances with that ensemble. He also directed the Ensemble of the Fourteenth Century for the Music of the 14th Century series, bringing scholarly readings of trecento sources to disc.
His writing ranges across vihuela editions, tablature, analysis and the place of plucked instruments in Renaissance society, and he has been honoured in Spain and Australia for that work.
Press quotes
In the skilled hands of Griffiths, the 12-string instrument produces exquisite sounds.
John Griffiths is featured on the following titles
The Echo of Opheus
Vihuela music of Renaissance Spain. On vihuela, the ‘Spanish lute’, John Griffiths offers an intimate programme of fantasies, variations, intabulations and dances by the great sixteenth-century Spanish masters, framed by the Orpheus legend.
John Griffiths is featured on the following titles
Two Gentlemen of Verona - The Music of the 14th Century Vol. 1
Two Gentlemen of Verona gathers secular polyphony from the first known generation of Italian composers. This volume presents madrigals, caccie and a motet by Jacopo da Bologna and Giovanni da Firenze.
Producer
Performing as La Romanesca
A leading force in early music in Australia since 1978, La Romanesca has developed a special interest in the performance of mediaeval monophonic and polyphonic song, although the group's repertory spans the twelfth to seventeenth centuries.
Iberian Triangle
La Romanesca presents a portrait of the musical diversity of Spanish song in the years just before the great expulsion and Columbus's voyages: music of Christian, Moorish and Jewish Spain before 1492.
Producer
Monodies
Music from twelfth- and thirteenth-century Spain and southern France. The programme centres on Martin Codax’s sea-haunted Cantigas de amigo, with songs by the troubadour Marcabru and anonymous fourteenth-century istanpittas.
Love Lyrics and Romances of Renaissance Spain
This is the first recording by the early music group La Romanesca, devoted to Spanish villancicos and romances of the Renaissance.
Performing as Ensemble of the Fourteenth Century
The Ensemble of the Fourteenth Century is a collective of specialist singers and instrumentalists brought together for the Fourteenth Century Recording Project. The ensemble was initially formed around the leading Australian mediaeval ensemble La Romanesca, which was expanded to provide the varied instrumental and vocal combinations required by the repertoire.
I am Music - The Music of the 14th Century Vol. 3
The Music of the Fourteenth Century series presents some of the earliest and most significant polyphonic settings of late medieval lyric poetry. Songs by Francesco Landini, performed by the Ensemble of the Fourteenth Century.
Producer
Every Delight and Fair Pleasure - The Music of the 14th Century Vol. 2
Northern Italian music from the second decade of the 14th century to the early 15th. Anonymous Rossi manuscript songs sit beside madrigals and ballatas by Maestro Piero and Bartolino da Padova.
Producer
Compositions by John Griffiths also appear on
Improvisations in Acoustic Chambers
Environmental composer Ros Bandt’s first vinyl LP is now available on CD. She works with the sonorities of man-made chambers — a water tank and a wheat silo — where bamboo flute, recorders, lute and voice reverberate. It may sound electronic, but is entirely natural.
Composer
Other credits
Sidekick
Sidekick is the debut CD from guitar duo Ziggy and Miles. It pairs new works written for the brothers with their own arrangement of Debussy’s Clair de Lune and repertoire from Spain, Latin America and Australia that has shaped their musical identity.
John Griffiths is a member of
La Romanesca
A leading force in early music in Australia since 1978, La Romanesca has developed a special interest in the performance of mediaeval monophonic and polyphonic song, although the group's repertory spans the twelfth to seventeenth centuries.
Ensemble of the Fourteenth Century
The Ensemble of the Fourteenth Century is a collective of specialist singers and instrumentalists brought together for the Fourteenth Century Recording Project. The ensemble was initially formed around the leading Australian mediaeval ensemble La Romanesca, which was expanded to provide the varied instrumental and vocal combinations required by the repertoire.